


cartography

by treescape



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Fluff, Jedi Temple, Jinnobi Challenge 2020, M/M, New Relationship, Qui-Gon Jinn Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-12
Updated: 2020-10-12
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:21:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26971297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/treescape/pseuds/treescape
Summary: Somehow, the Temple looks a little different after Naboo. Obi-Wan has never considered himself a romantic, but he finds it astonishing how just a few words can reshape a world.So with Qui-Gon’s confession of love in his heart, Obi-Wan maps the Temple anew.
Relationships: Qui-Gon Jinn/Obi-Wan Kenobi
Comments: 10
Kudos: 64





	cartography

The Jedi Temple is a colossal thing, stretching upwards and out in the Coruscanti sun. Rumours on the streets say there’s ten thousand rooms, but Obi-Wan knows the truth: there are far more than that. In many ways, it is a city unto itself, built of devotion and light and held together by shared purpose.

It has been his home almost as long as Obi-Wan can remember. He knows every elegant arch and angle of its corridors, every sector and tower and ventilation shaft. He remembers running through the halls as a Youngling, naming every column and statue as he passed.

And yet somehow, the Temple looks a little different after Naboo. Obi-Wan has never considered himself a romantic, but he finds it astonishing how just a few words can reshape a world.

So with Qui-Gon’s confession of love in his heart, Obi-Wan maps the Temple anew.

**The Halls of Healing**

Obi-Wan has a great deal of respect for the Temple Healers, but that doesn’t mean he particularly likes to visit them in the Halls of Healing. Such visits usually mean that his Master has done something reckless, and that Obi-Wan will spend long days and nights fretting about his health.

In this way, the aftermath of Naboo is no different, unless it is in degree. Qui-Gon is barely even a wraith, held together by sheer will alone—the Healers’, Obi-Wan’s, Qui-Gon’s himself. Obi-Wan has never seen his Master this close to death, and it scours away his control.

Still, it is in the Halls of Healing that everything changes, 

“I thought you had left me, Master,” Obi-Wan says when Qui-Gon opens his eyes for the first time in weeks. The face on the pillows before him is sunken, grey, but the eyes are as blue as an Alderaanian sky.

Qui-Gon raises one hand, fingers shaking, to brush against Obi-Wan’s lips. “Not yet.” 

It’s only then, at the electricity of that touch, that Obi-Wan realizes his shields are down.

But if there’s one thing he’s learned about Naboo, it’s that _later_ might not always come. So he catches Qui-Gon’s hand in his own, presses it more firmly to his mouth, and says words he never thought he’d be brave enough to say. 

Obi-Wan still doesn’t like the Halls of Healing, but the memory of Qui-Gon’s smile, cast against the blue-green sweep of the walls—that, he’ll cherish.

**The High Council Chamber**

Many Younglings see the Council Chamber as a challenge. Once, when the Council was in full session, Bant had dared Obi-Wan to press his ear flat against the door. He’d managed ten full seconds before he darted away, but he hadn’t heard a single word spoken within.

(He’d waited all day for punishment, but it never came; when he’d finally broken down and confessed, Master Yoda had simply shaken his weathered head and said, “Good it is to have curiosity, Youngling, but well it is to be thwarted, on occasion.”)

The first time Obi-Wan had stood before the Council at his Master’s side, he’d sworn to be worthy—of his Master’s teaching and trust, of the ‘saber at his belt, of one day standing in this room before the Council as a Knight. The last time—

He understands—he does—and yet.

They speak of it one evening, in tones halting with care, and Obi-Wan decides he’s at peace.

**Obi-Wan’s Quarters**

Obi-Wan’s new quarters are like those of any Jedi Knight—there is a bed, and a table, and a chest of drawers. It’s a space that’s meant to be _his_ , and it’s nice, but after the warmth of shared quarters they feel too empty and impersonal.

But then, that’s probably because he doesn’t spend much time there, really. He thinks he would give them back, if there were enough Knights in the Temple that the space was needed.

He might do it anyway. It seems wasteful to keep them; he doesn’t even keep his things there.

**The Hangar Bay**

The crushing release of gravity has always made his stomach twist, weighted unevenly between nerves and excitement. It’s something he’s learned to control over the years. The trick is not to lurch away from it, but to lean in; that makes it easier to find a centre as they break from Coruscant’s pull.

As a Padawan, the Temple Hangar had been Obi-Wan’s lifeblood: it was adventure and duty all rolled into one. Now, it spins fiercely from bitter to sweet. It is parting and reunion, but never quite at once. Obi-Wan thinks that he understands, more fully than he ever has before, what it is to live in the moment—how something can re-define itself from day to day, or even from second to second.

**The Gardens**

The Temple gardens mean many things to many people, but then, there are many gardens, too. They are peace, and community, and sustenance—a dozen things and more.

To Obi-Wan, all gardens mean the same. It is a translation he has made for so long that he doesn’t know from whence it came.

Gardens mean Qui-Gon.

But then, he supposes that Qui-Gon is peace, and communion, and sustenance, so perhaps it isn’t so different.

And that…well, that hasn’t actually changed at all.

**~~Qui-Gon’s~~ Their Bedroom**

Qui-Gon doesn’t say so in as many words, but he doesn’t really have to: he’s worried that Obi-Wan will feel like a mere visitor in his bed. It is a place that has been only Qui-Gon’s for so long.

One day, Obi-Wan hopes Qui-Gon will understand that this is what he likes about it. He has only ever wanted to carve a place for himself—in Qui-Gon’s heart, in Qui-Gon’s life, in Qui-Gon’s space.

There are plenty of memories they can make together in that bed.

**The Room of a Thousand Fountains**

It is a game amongst the Younglings, to try to count exactly how many waterfalls reside within the Temple’s most beloved meditation retreat. They must play it quietly, of course: it wouldn’t do to disturb the tranquility within. But then, that’s a part of the game, too.

There are other things Obi-Wan counts, these days, as he sits in serenity at Qui-Gon’s side—like the beats of Qui-Gon’s heart, and the slow rise and fall of his breath, and memories of each freckle he’d kissed across Obi-Wan’s skin that morning.

**The Archives**

The less said about the archives, the better, for the sake of Obi-Wan’s modesty. He’s not quite sure he can ever look Master Nu in the eyes again. He doesn’t know how she can possibly _know_ , but then, Jocasta Nu seems to know everything.

Best to simply say that he and Qui-Gon have found a new use for the datashelves in the back.

They are a rather agreeable height.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I'm [treescape](https://treescape.tumblr.com/) on tumblr.


End file.
